Felicia+Brown+LMF

Since I have a science background, I decided to handle the LMF assignment as an experiment of sorts. Therefore, I developed five hypotheses, completed 5 queries of the LMF videos and finally, watched 4-5 videos in each set of queries to characterize each generalization.
 * // Learning Motivation and Fun // **
 * Background information and procedure:**


 * 1. Women, in general, consider learning more fun and engaging when there is a high degree of social interaction. ** This generalization was determined by completing a query of women who categorized their learning experiences as having “a lot” of “interaction with other learners”. The query yielded 43 videos categorized as such out of 89 total videos from women, which is 48% of the LMF experiences. Therefore, because 48% is not a majority, one would have to state that the data is inconclusive of this hypothetical generalization. However, this percentage is not so small that it carries no weight. What the 48% implies is that women, in general, do place an emphasis on social cooperativity in learning situations. For example, Aurora01 expressed that what she thought was so engaging was that she was able to immediately apply what she had learned in a ballroom dancing class. And, at age 16, Dana expressed that her fun learning experience with drawing was because she did so with her friends. In her words, “even though I like drawing by myself, it’s a lot more fun with my friends around”. Also, Gina 78 expressed that “face offs” with her classmates in a pirates versus samurai learning game was one of the things that made that particular learning experience so memorable and fun. Finally, Lisa51 expressed that what made her customer service training experience so fun what the fact that it was so “interactive” with role playing activities.


 * 2. Male and Female learners, of all ages, consider learning fun when there is a low teacher intimidation factor involved. **  This generalization, like number 1, was determined by completing a query; however, this time, the query was that of both males and females who reported their experiences as having a “high” “Degree to which teacher was intimidating” and a “low” “Degree to which teacher was intimidating”. The results were 114 and 7 out of 162 total experiences, respectively. The results overwhelmingly indicate that teachers who are intimidating do not create fun and engaging learning experiences. For example, Al66 expressed that his tango instructor was easy to understand and was, in his words, “quite colorful and flamboyant” which enabled him to apply the dance moves more easily. In addition, Cathy63 stated that the teacher that taught her magic tricks was “very nice and supportive”. Also, Eric172 felt that his mammology professor was very laid back and, in his words, was “having a blast being with all of us”. Finally, Kelley Hundley154 expressed that her history instructor was, in her words, “very invested and involved.”


 * 3. Male and Female learners, of all ages, consider learning more engaging when the instruction is more relevant to personal goals. **  This generalization was determined by completing query where “relevance” is “very relevant to past or future goals” and “somewhat” relevant. The results were 74 and 36 experiences out of 162, respectively. Taken together, 68% of the reported experiences involve some degree of relevance. Therefore, this generalization is supported by the LMF videos. In my opinion, this data gives supportive evidence that the ARCS instructional design is a good one to use when designing instructional programs. Although relevance is only 1 component of the ARCS model, the data does indicate that including relevance in design is critical to the effectiveness of the instructional design. For example, Audrey81 stated that her engaging learning experienced involved a need to become more skilled at art because she was an elementary school teacher. And, Wendy130 expressed that her fun learning experience in an American sign language class was relevant to her future goal of teaching hearing and speech impaired elementary students. Also, Suzanne153 stated that her fun horseback riding experience was relevant to her life because she and her brother grew up watching Roy Rogers wanting to “be a cowboy”, so to speak, being able to ride horses. Finally, Ron141 expressed that his engaging learning experience was an extension of a conversation with a coworker about how to get into shape which was a personal goal of his.

** 4. Male and Female learners, of all ages, consider learning more fun and engaging when they possess enthusiasm for the subject matter.**  This generalization was determined by completing a query where “enthusiasm for subject” is “high” or “medium”. The results were 104 and 32 out of 162, respectively. Taken together, these results represent 84% of the experiences reported as engaging due to some moderate to profound enthusiasm for the subject matter. These results are not all surprising; it makes sense that learning would be more fun when you like what you are learning about. In my opinion, that is half the battle in learning new things. For example, Andy 176 expressed that learning how to make a multicolored T shirt was, in his words, “cool” and that even though he didn’t understand what he was doing at first, that he was determined to learn the graphics. And, Casey169 expressed that her wake surfing learning experience was fun because she was with her friends and that even though she kept falling that everyone was really enthusiastic and supportive of her. Finally, Scott (heybison88) expressed that his learning experience with graphic arts began with a lecture that was not that inspiring but that once he was shown the entire process from start to finish that the “light went on” for him and he became really excited about learning graphic arts.

**5. Male and Female learners, of all ages, consider learning more fun when some degree of humor is involved**. This generalization was determined by completing a query where “use of humor” is “a little” or “a lot”. The results were 62 and 43 out of 162, respectively. Taken together, 65% of the experiences involve humor on some level. This generalization is not at all surprising; most people like humor. Humor “breaks the ice” and “lightens the mood”, in general; therefore, why would learning be any different.